Saving Sayaka
by Xander Cruize
Summary: What if things had gone just a little differently that night? Spoilers for episode 8. Rating in case I decide to extend it.
1. Chapter 1: Saving Sayaka

Sayaka Miki had been spiraling downwards, a descent that could not be stopped, if one were to ask a certain mysterious transfer student and a creepy white manipulator. She had gone over the turning point, the night that Madoka had thrown her soul gem away and she'd realized that she couldn't be with the boy she loved.

Presently, she was watching from a distance as one of her best friends admitted her own feelings to Kyousuke. That should have been her. She should have been the one to grab his hands, his wonderful, working hands, and told him how she felt. But it wasn't to be. The life of a Magical Girl could not allow for it. She turned, started to walk away, and then stopped when she saw a figure staring at her.

For a brief second, Sayaka panicked. Kyouko Sakura was watching her, red eyes blazing, hair blowing in the wind. They stared each other down for a moment, and Sayaka started walking towards her, intending to walk past her. What happened instead was that Kyouko grabbed her arm. "Sayaka... If you need to talk to someone... If you want to talk, I'll listen."

Sayaka just shook her head. "I'm fine right now. Thank you for your concern." As Kyouko reluctantly let her go, she saw another person walking towards them. Black hair flowing behind her, violet eyes boring straight into her soul, Homura reached into her buckler. "Sayaka. When was the last time you cleaned your Soul Gem?" Her voice was quiet, cold. Sayaka got a sense that Homura was ready to kill someone.

"It's been a few nights..."

"How many Grief Seeds have you collected? How many Familiars have you killed?" Homura was glaring at her now. When Sayaka looked away, the transfer student pulled a black gem from wherever she stored these things. Tossing it towards the blue-haired girl, she continued speaking. "If you don't clean your gem-"

"To hell with that." She tossed the Seed back, glaring. "I will die when I lose to withces. That's fine, I'm not needed anymore if I'm unable to defeat witches."

Kyouko made a choking noise, but didn't say anything. Homura caught the Seed, sighing. "Very well then. If you refuse to clean your gem..." The raven-haired girl reached into her buckler again, this time pulling out the cold gray form of a gun. "Then I will kill you."

Kyouko spun, leaping at Homura as she pulled the trigger. The redhead managed to knock her off balance, the bullet whizzing past a stunned Sayaka, barely missing her head. Kyouko looked over her shoulder. "Run, Sayaka!" There was a flash of red light, and Homura found herself being restrained by Kyouko's spear.

Sayaka took a quick step back, staring. "Kyouko-"

"I said run, now run dammit!" The red-haired girl was struggling against Homura, barely managing to restrain her. She nodded in approval as Sayaka turned and booked it out of there. As she turned back to look at Homura, the othe girl whipped her head forward, bashing her forehead against Kyouko's nose.

"You don't realize what you've done, Kyouko Sakura. What fate awaits her now is your fault."

"I wasn't going to let you kill her. That's just... I couldn't abide that."

"Very well. You get to find Sayaka again tonight. You get to see what happens to her as part of your own fate." She turned. "I care not for either of you, all that matters is that Madoka is safe..." She walked away, leaving a very confused Kyouko in her wake.

* * *

She found Sayaka sitting in a train station. The blue-haired girl was looking at her Soul Gem, the blue light faded and dim. Deep patches of black dotted its surface. Kyouko shook her head lightly, pulling out a Grief Seed. "You're an idiot."

Sayaka looked up, tears stinging her eyes."Kyouko..."

"Look, if I loan you a Grief Seed will you stop being stupidly depressed?"

"The balance between hope and despair remains at zero. That's what you said, right? I understand what you mean now. I did save a few people, but in exchange, hatred and jealousy filled my heart. I even hurt my best friend. Whenever I wished for someone to be happy, someone else had to suffer just as much. That's what it means to be a Puella Magi. I'm really such an idiot." Tears started falling down her face, dripping onto her lap. Her Soul Gem flared up, darker blue than normal.

Kyouko growled, grabbing the girl by the shoulders and turning her. "Fuck that guy, all right?! Fuck him and fuck your so-called friend for taking him from you!" She stared directly into those blue eyes. "Just because you're the way you are doesn't mean you can't be with anyone, you hear me?!"

"I... i don't understand... What are you trying to say, Kyouko?" Her tears had stopped, her soul gem no longer shining. With an irritated sigh, Kyouko moved forward, pressing her lips harshly against Sayaka's. There was a moment where she was sure she'd gone too far, but then Sayaka returned the kiss slowly.

When they broke apart, they were both red in the face. Sayaka stared at the older girl quietly. Kyouko was scowling at her, still red. "I... Look, Sayaka... I know that you don't know me that well, but... I ain't gonna watch you waste your life pining over some guy. Clean your Gem, or I'll knock you out and clean it for you."

Sayaka nodded, hesitantly taking the Grief Seed Kyouko offered her. She touched it to her Gem, watching the corruption flow away, avoiding looking at the redhead. To her credit, she managed not to stammer as she asked, "Why do you feel so strongly for me?"

"I see a lot of myself in you... Selfless wish that led to you being hurt and... and you made all the same mistakes I made. And I want to be with you, Sayaka. I've felt this way since... since I took you to my father's church. If you don't love me, that's fine. I just want you to be happy, all right? I want to make someone happy again other than myself."

Sayaka nodded slowly. "A-all right... Let's just take this slow, okay? I'm getting over someone, and we don't know each other too well... But I'm willing to give anything a try..."

Kyouko smiled. "That's good to hear... Let me walk you home, all right?"

"I'd like that..."

As they walked out of the station, a pair of red eyes shined from behind a garbage bin. "It appears that my plan failed. I will have to take a different approach..."


	2. Chapter 2: Laying Plans

"My parents are getting suspicious." Sayaka Miki looked up at the stars from her perch on the tower. "They've started asking me why I stay out so late." She turned her head to look at the other girl seated nearby.

"So what're you telling them?" Kyouko Sakura bit into a piece of toffee, crunching it as she made eye contact with her... girlfriend was still such a weird word to think. But it was the only one that summed up what she and Sayaka had together. One night, that was it. Once night since Sayaka had almost gone off the deep end.

"Studying. I told them I've been meeting up with Madoka and studying." The blue-haired girl sighed a bit, swinging her saber a couple of times to loosen her muscles. "Soon I won't be able to get away with it. When they notice my grades dropping-"

"Tell them you met someone. Parents always go for the romantics." More crunching as Kyouko took another bite. She offered the candy bar to Sayaka. "Bite?"

Sayaka sighed, leaning down to take a smaller piece off. "I don't know if mine will. Just last week I was pining over Kyousuke, but now he's going steady with Hitomi..." She shrugged, leaning against the rail. "Besides, they'd want to meet you, and they'd flip if they found out I was dating a girl."

Kyouko shrugged again, standing as she finished off the candy. She willed her spear into existence and jumped up to the railing. "We'll figure it out. For now, let's go hunt some witches."

The two leaped off of the tower, free-falling for a moment before using their magics to boost themselves forward. They landed lightly on a rooftop and were about to jump again, when a voice spoke from behind them.

"Sakura-san. Miki-san. I wish to speak with you two." They turned to find Homura Akemi standing, arms crossed, behind them. They looked between each other for a moment before Kyouko nodded.

"All right, we're listening."

"While I am... glad, to see you two well, we have very pressing matters at hand. A powerful witch is on its way to attack our city."

"Walpurgis Night," Kyouko supplied, remembering the conversation she'd had with the transfer student. "The witch that doesn't need a labyrinth." She sighed a bit when Homura nodded.

Sayaka frowned, looking from Kyouko to Homura and back again. "Wait, what are you talking about? I thought a witch had to-"

"Walpurgis Night is a more powerful creature than any we've faced so far. Her appearance brings horrible storms. Hurricane winds, floooding rains, thunder to shake the earth. She is due to appear in two days."

"Two days?!" Kyouko shouted, the words echoing off of the buildings around them. "No way, that's too soon!"

"I gave you ample warning, Kyouko Sakura. I said 'in two weeks' time.'" Homura gazed steadily at the redhead, eyes narrowed. "And I need your help. Both of you."

Something about the tone of her voice, the desperity with which she spoke, shook Sayaka. "We'll help," she said. "After all, we're Magical Girls. We can't let some stupid witch destroy our home."

"Very well. If you'll both follow me back to my apartment, we can talk there."

* * *

Sayaka looked up at the giant pendulum in Homura's apartment. It shouldn't have been able to fit in the tiny building where Homura resided. This _room_ shouldn't have fit in that building. Something was definitely weird about the transfer student.

The three sat with Kyouko and Sayaka beside each other, facing Homura. The raven-tressed girl lifted a cup to her mouth, sipping the tea within. She set the cup back down before she started speaking. "Walpurgis Night is the most powerful witch in existence right now. Her mere presence is enough to wipe out hundreds of lives. When she arrives here, the city will be put on lockdown. Everyone will be ordered to evacuate their homes and head to shelter for their own safety."

Kyouko scowled. "You still haven't told me how you know all this."

"This won't be the first time I've fought with this witch, Kyouko Sakura. I do hope it will be the last, though."

Kyouko raised an eyebrow, puzzled by this statement, but said nothing. "All right, so what do you want us to do? How can we help?"

"The objectives are simple. Kyouko, you and I will spend tomorrow and part of the next day setting up the field. When the witch shows up, we're going to blow her out of the sky. Sayaka, your job is going to be two-fold. The first is to keep Madoka safely in the shelter. The second is to keep Kyubei away from her, even if it means his death."

Sayaka leaned forward. "All right, I've got it. I'd rather be out there fighting with you two, but I'll do what I'm told. But why? What's Madoka got to do with this? She's not one of us."

"Exactly. Kyubei wishes to turn her, and he'll use Walpurgis Night as the perfect excuse. She has great power, so he's told me. She could destroy this witch, but almost immediately after, she would turn into a worse one, a witch to destroy the world."

Both of the other girls stared at her. Kyouko stood up quickly. "Yeah, and how do you know _that_, huh?! Did Kyubei tell you that, too, or your so-called 'sources?!'"

Homura looked at her, apathy in her purple eyes. "I know because it's what has happened every time. Every time she turned into a witch or died, and I was forced to live this month over. Forced to kill witches and hope that this time around, we would prevail. I'm done with secrets." She stood. "I have killed both of you more times than I can count, in witch form and in the form you take now. I have watched you both die repeatedly, by my own hand, or by someone else's. None of that matters to me. My wish was to save Madoka from her fate, and if I can't do it, then _this-_" she pointed to the buckler on her arm- "brings me back to try it again! It's not about you two, or Mami, or the witches or me! It's about Madoka! So, Sayaka Miki, you keep her far away from combat and kill that creature if you see it." She paused, taking a breath. "Do you understand me?"

Kyouko had fallen back into her seat, stunned. Sayaka stared for a moment, trying to understand everything she'd just heard. She opened her mouth, choked on her words, and swallowed. She nodded softly and said, "Yes. I understand. Madoka will be safe."

"Good. Both of you go get some rest."


End file.
